


Follow You, Follow Me

by lookingforthestars



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Anxious Gert, F/M, Fluff, Patient Chase, Post Finale, Serious Discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22093345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforthestars/pseuds/lookingforthestars
Summary: It’s always like this, her backtracking and him convincing. He thought, after what happened, she might finally believe that he would do anything for her. Maybe she never will. Maybe her insecurities will always get the better of her and Chase will spend his entire life trying to prove how much she means to him.It's a little tiring, but it’s far from the worst way he could spend his life.
Relationships: Chase Stein/Gertrude Yorkes
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75
Collections: Runaways





	Follow You, Follow Me

Gert has been picking fights, and Chase isn’t sure why.

They’ve always been combative, because Gert is an intense person who feels everything multiplied times a thousand, and Chase is sometimes clueless and puts his foot in his mouth a lot, and he’s far more sensitive than he would like to be.

But the bickering took a backseat for a while, after they defeated Morgan – for obvious reasons. They were both too happy that the other person was safe and, well, alive to worry about the minor things.

Right now, it’s all minor things. Yesterday, she criticized him for wearing a shirt with a hole on the side (he was out for a run, who cares?), and this morning she barked something about how he couldn’t be doing the dishes any more wrongly if he was actively trying to fail.

He doesn’t love how barbed her tongue can be, especially when he doesn’t feel like he deserves it. But his saving grace is that he knows Gert, knows that when she gets like this, she doesn’t mean it. There’s something else weighing on her mind, and Chase waits until they finally get a quiet moment in the hostel to ask.

“You’re thinking really loudly, Chase,” she snaps before he can say a word. “Do you need something? I have a headache.”

Chase quirks an eyebrow at her, leaning against the doorframe of their shared room. “I just came to see if you were finally going to talk to me.”

“I’ve been talking to you. I’m talking to you right now,” she grumbles, looking miserable.

“No, you’ve been yelling at me. Which you only do when your anxiety is out of control or there’s something making you unhappy and you don’t want to confront it.” He takes advantage of Gert’s temporary startled silence to sit next to her on the bed, leaning forward and propping his elbows up on his knees. “I’m not mad, but I do wish you would tell me what’s actually bothering you.”

Chase can almost see the fight physically leave her body. Her shoulders slump, and she winces, her expression softening more than it has in the past few days. Sometimes, when he’s tired and frustrated too, he’ll yell back, but it never gets them anywhere. If he can manage it, staying calm is usually the best way to get her to open up. “Shit, I’m sorry. Have I been terrible?” He smirks a little, and Gert drops her head into her hands, letting out a groan. “I hate this week so much.”

He rests his hand on her back, tentatively, waiting for her to relax into the touch before he rubs up and down her spine. “Why?”

“Um.” There’s a long pause, and Gert clears her throat, lifting her head but still not looking at him. “I got into Smith.”

Chase blinks a few times, the words finally sinking in. “Oh my god. Gert, that’s amazing!” It’s everything she wanted, but right now, she looks the opposite of thrilled. “I don’t understand. Why are you upset about that?”

“I’m not,” she admits, pressing her lips together. “Are you?”

He frowns. “Upset? Of course not. I told you I wanted you to go, didn’t I?”

Gert starts fiddling with one of her rings, sliding it up to her nails and then back down to her knuckles, again and again. “Yeah, you did. But…things were different, you know? We weren’t back together yet, and everything that happened…hadn’t happened. We haven’t talked about it since then. Honestly, I’d kind of forgotten for a while until I got the acceptance letter.”

He’s embarrassed to realize that he forgot too. Then again, college isn’t high on his list of priorities like it is for Gert. He’s busy trying to take everything one day a time, too overwhelmed to think much past that.

“Nothing has changed,” he says as gently as possible. “After what we’ve been through, we deserve to go after what _we_ want. All of us. Including you.”

Gert shuts her eyes, looking like she’s willing herself to do something. “I’m not upset because I got accepted. I’m upset because I’m scared to…”

She trails off, and Chase suddenly gets a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. _She’s ending this, she’s choosing college over you, she’s moving on in her life without you._ “Gert.”

“I’m scared to ask you to come with me,” she blurts out in one syllable, so quickly that he needs a few seconds to parse what she said. When his brain finally connects the dots, he’s so overcome with relief that he does the worst possible thing in this situation and _laughs_. “I’m sorry, is this funny to you?” she says sharply, her eyes narrowing.

“No, no,” he tries to assure her, managing to quell his laughter but not to wipe the stupid grin off his face. “I’m sorry, I just…I thought you were breaking up with me.”

It’s her turn to look stunned. “What? Why?”

“When you, um, first applied, Molly asked if it was unfair for you to consider a future without me,” Chase explains, recalling a conversation that genuinely feels like it happened decades ago. “It wasn’t, of course – I mean, it’s not – but…it was hard to think about you having a future without me when I couldn’t really see my future without you.” He swallows. “Sorry, did that make sense? That was a lot of…words.”

Gert gives him a tense smile, her shoulders so tight she looks like a rubber band that’s about to snap. “I always wanted you to come with me. I just didn’t think you would, which is why I didn’t tell you then. It wasn’t what you wanted.” She pushes her hair behind her ear, bouncing her legs nervously and causing a slight vibration on the bed. “I-It’s not what you want. You want to go to school here, I’m sorry, I’m being selfish. Again. You deserve to have what you want too.”

“Gert,” he says seriously, capturing her attention before she gets too lost in her own thoughts. “When I said that, I thought you were never going to forgive me. And I wasn’t going to just…follow my ex to another state like a stalker.” Chase reaches over, slipping his hand into hers and brushing his thumb over her knuckles. “They have engineering programs in Massachusetts, too.”

She looks at him for a moment, her eyes hopeful, and then suddenly her face falls and she turns away. “You shouldn’t feel obligated.”

Chase sighs. It’s always like this, her backtracking and him convincing. He thought, after what happened, she might finally believe that he would do anything for her. Maybe she never will. Maybe her insecurities will always get the better of her and Chase will spend his entire life trying to prove how much she means to him.

It's a little tiring, but it’s far from the worst way he could spend his life. “I don’t.”

“Are you sure? Because sometimes I just wonder if…” Gert looks up, adjusting her glasses with her free hand, and he can tell that she’s trying to hold back an inconvenient flurry of emotions. “I don’t want you to feel obligated because of what…what you did. Or, what the other you did. You know? I’m really grateful, but it doesn’t mean we have to be together.”

Chase feels his chest constrict, he hates when her doubts make him doubt, but he can also see how hard she’s fighting to stave off tears, and he’s ninety-four percent sure that she’s speaking for him and not herself. “Or…and hear me out here…” He moves his hand to her cheek, making sure she’s facing him. “Maybe I’m telling you the truth. Maybe I mean it when I say that I’m ridiculously in love with you and I don’t ever want to be without you again.”

The tears shake loose, and Chase takes her into his arms, taking how hard she’s clinging to him as evidence that she doesn’t want to be without him either. “I love you too,” she murmurs, her voice small and quiet between them. This is a fairly recent development, and he still can’t help but get emotional every time she says it. “I’m sorry, okay? I want to believe we’re solid now, but I’m so scared that the second I do, I’ll lose everything. I’m just…” Gert sniffles. “I don’t know, I’m really broken.”

“We’re all broken, Gert. We just show it differently.” He showed it by running away like a coward, time after time. But he’s not afraid anymore. He finally knows what’s important, knows whose approval he wants to devote his whole life to earning. “I want to come with you. Wherever you go, if you let me, I’ll follow you. Please tell me you believe that.”

Gert leans back, wiping her cheeks with her shirt sleeve. She studies his face, apparently finding what she needs, and nods. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for trusting me enough to ask. That’s all I ever wanted.” He can handle the insecurity, the uncertainty, but he can’t handle her shutting him out. That’s the only thing that really hurts.

“So…we’re actually doing this?” Her smile is still watery, but she sounds happy, and Chase can’t help but grin.

As much as he loves their friends, as much as he hopes they’re always part of his life, he thinks it might not be bad to get a fresh start. To build something with Gert away from their parents, away from ancient aliens and evil sorceresses and parallel dimensions.

He’s pretty sure Molly and Old Lace will still be part of the equation, though. He knows how much Gert needs them. And honestly, the fact that she wants to include him in her family, that she might love him near as much as she loves them, is pretty wonderful in its own right.

“Yeah,” he says with a crooked smile, suddenly excited for the future in a way he doesn’t ever remember feeling before. “Let’s do it.”


End file.
